Cleaning a linoleum floor

In My Humble Opinion
1

Couple questions:

  1. We want to use up old cleaning supplies for mopping the floor. Which of these would work best? It looks like dust and possibly old floor wax comprises the majority of crud on the floor:
    a. a detergent. I also have lots of old car wash soap.
    b. bleach/water mix. If so, what mixture ratio?
    c. Enzyme-based cleaners, e.g. oxy-clean or simple green.
    d. all-purpose cleaner.
    e. degreasers.

  2. Which vacuum head should I use? We have two types: generic carpet head and long bristle. None of them have the little wheels on them.

  3. If I need to scrub the floor, which of these should I use (no deck scrubber, my preferred choice):
    f. A green scouring pad.
    g. A little strip of green scouring pad that came on one side of the sponge head of the mop I bought.
    h. I have a hand-buffer for car waxing.
    i. what looks like a bathroom or tile brush.

  4. How do I get the floor to look really clean and shiny?

2

Updated choices:

a. Windex
b. Automotive enzyme-based degreaser
c. Lysol bathroom cleaner
d. Clorox bathroom cleaner
e. Oxy clean window cleaner

3

Not Pledge…in college we used to clean the floor with Pledge. Walking on it with socks was like walking across wet ice. Though it was funny to do it and not tell anyone.

Regarding your choices, I’d probably go with one of the bathroom cleaners. I would stay away from the degreaser as it might strip the coating off the linoleum.

4

Ok I just lined up all of them and tested them on individual squares. Interesting result: the degreaser and Oxy clean (window cleaner) had the cleanest tiles. Lysol and Windex had no chance at all. Clorox was verrrrry interesting. Where the clorox touched, that particular spot was clean. Moving it around didn’t help the surrounding area. The degreaser and oxy clean were able to clean up the rest of the Clorox square. However, you could still see the faint outlines where the clorox had touched, leading me to believe that the Clorox got the tile cleaner, but I would need it to cover every single inch of tile.

5

Oxy clean is out. After drying, it left huge streaks and mud.

Trying a 40/60 bleach/water mix.

6

Bleach, Clorox cleaner, and the degreaser tied. With the secondary goal of getting rid of something, it looks like it’s going to be the degreaser, although the bleached tiles definitely look whiter.